Oil? What Oil? Crisis? What Crisis? How about a NEW GAME?

It's a game of supply and demand. And sometimes, like when playing poker, you have to know when to hold them and know when to fold them. (Or pack up your game, and just go home; or create a new game with new rules!) Depending on who you talk to, we're facing an oil crisis. Or, maybe we aren't. We're facing an environmental crisis. Maybe we aren't. Go figure. Maybe we should ignore all the idiot economists and news media out there (because all we get are conflicting reports) and just happily move on and tinker with our own ways to beat the power grid and gain independence from oil companies, power companies, and so on. A few photovoltaic panels on the roof, a solar water heater, a solar air heater, a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle that uses vegetable oil for the non-electric need for locomotion... and *voila!*... no need for the oil company or the power company.

Okay, last year we were watching the price per barrel of oil heading past $140. And gas prices at the pump in the U.S. were reaching almost $5 per gallon.

Folks were bailing out of their Ford Excursions and Expeditions, their Chevy Suburbans, their Yukons, their Hummers, and all the other gas-hog vehicles and were running to Toyota, Honda, Nissan, and Hyundai (to name a few)--folks who still seemed to know how to make more efficient and energy-conserving vehicles.

The hybrid-electric-vehicles (HEV) and even more energy-effective plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicles (PHEV) were getting rave reviews and more demand than ever. There were waiting lists at all the dealerships to get these cars.

Although folks were backing away from doing much unnecessary driving and thus not buying as much of the $5/gallon fuel, oil companies posted their highest profits for the quarters of 2007-2008. They were making gravy!

In the meantime, the big car companies (Ford, GM, Chrysler) were taking the hits. They didn't see the writing on the wall. They were (and still are) losing billions of dollars.

What's funny is that in 1980, I took some classes on alternate energy and energy conservation at the University of Guam and the University of Hawaii... and they were preaching that we would run out of oil totally by the year 2000. After the scares of the oil crisis in 1973-1974... when OPEC started to get squirrely, the "oil crisis" and "energy conservation" was still clear on our minds. We knew we were dependent on oil (in more ways than one). And for Guam and Hawaii, any oil for fuel or otherwise had to be shipped in. It wasn't as if we had our own sources. We did, however, have abundant Solar Energy and other renewable and alternate energy sources. And that's the point.

I bought a used Datsun 1200 sedan for that reason. Yeah, I could have gone for a used Ford LTD or a Mustang Mach II or an Olds GTO... but, hey, I lived on Guam... and the Japanese cars didn't seem to rust out as much as the U.S. cars did. And also, it wasn't like I was going to do any major highway driving. That Datsun (now Nissan) got up to 48 miles per gallon... great for a college kid on a limited budget.

So, I saw in today's news that there are more than 30 tankers -- each with the capacity of 2 million barrels of oil sitting anchored offshore around the world. They are "floating storage tanks" and they are sitting idle... waiting for the prices of oil to go up. Storage farms in the U.S. are at capacity. Refineries have cut back on production. Because the demand disappeared. The recession wiped out jobs. Without jobs, folks don't need to drive very much. Thus, less demand on oil.

Prices of oil plummeted from about $5 a gallon back in August 2008 to about $1.65 a gallon by October/November 2008. (Didn't matter to me... because I got laid off in September Sigh). Now the oil prices have edged back up to about $2.20 a gallon (These are all Northern California prices... your "milage may vary" depending on your location).

But the price per barrel of oil still remains at about $40, far down from its price of over $140 back in August. At the time, traders were counting on the price-per-barrel to exceed $200. Well... like I said at the beginning. The utilities market and the commodities markets are like a poker game. Sometimes ya win, sometimes ya lose. Or, sometimes, you create a new game and change the rules.

That's what we must do. We must, as individuals, create our own NEW GAME! Keep on tinkering with our home-made "franken-sources" for energy. Our home-built solar panels, home-built solar water heaters, home-built solar air heaters, solar greenhouses, better insulation, better weather-stripping, better driving habits, better and wiser purchases for home use. We can not only change the rules of the game, but create a new game. And not become dependent on the knuckleheads that have huge, heavily ladden oil tankers sitting idle off our coasts waiting for the price to rise so they can gouge us again.

Have we learned any lessons yet?

Upcoming Solar and Alternate Energy Events/Conferences

Organic Photovoltaics 2009
April 27-29, 2009
Philadelphia, PA
IntertechPira
Tel: 207-781-9618
Email: brian.santos@pira-international.com

Photovoltaics Summit 2009
June 1-3, 2009
San Francisco, CA
IntertechPira
Tel: 207 781 9637
Email: sheri.bonnell@pira-international.com

Concentrating Solar Thermal Power 2009
June 4-5, 2009
San Francisco, CA
IntertechPira
Tel: 207-781-9618
Email: brian.santos@pira-international.com

Solar Power International 09
October 27-29, 2009
Anaheim, CA
Marilyn Sawyer
Tel: 202-559-2031
Email: msawyer@solarelectricpower.org



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2nd Annual AEE Solar Dealer Conference in Mesa, Arizona

2nd Annual AEE Solar Dealer Conference
February 18-21, 2009
Mesa, Arizona, U.S.A.

Their website:
http://aeesolar.com/events/dealer-conference-09.html

Barack H. Obama - New President for the U.S. - New Energy Ideas as Well?

We've turned a new chapter in U.S. (and World) history today. Barack Obama was sworn in and became our new President. He's going to be hitting the ground running--because he's inheriting a mess. An overseas conflict (aka "war"), economic crisis (not only on wall-street, but in the roads and streets of the U.S., where unemployment, closing businesses, and foreclosures are almost at every corner.

And, we have a looming energy crisis. Petroleum is a NON-RENEWABLE resource. What is going to be the future policy of the United States? The U.S. auto makers have been making bad decisions and judgement lapses for decades. Some, they accepted. Note--the demise of the "Studebaker" brand, or the "Edsel", and some of the other more obscure names. Many of the auto makers merged to form large conglomerates-- like Chrysler, Plymouth, and Dodge (and Jeep) and Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln (and Range Rover, Jaquar, and ...). Now there are talks about "spinning off" "unprofitable" brands. How about just retraining the auto workers to use their metal-working and manufacturing skills to build solar panels, solar containment devices, and so on?

Well... just some weird ideas... the coffee is kicking in... I've been watching the Inauguration Festivities all day. But I'm looking foward to our country's new directions in Energy Conservation and Alternate Energy Production Methods.

Losing Interest in Alternate Energy? DON'T!

Just because the gas/fuel prices have come down almost by half (here in the U.S.) since about 4 months ago, don't abandon the continuing push toward alternate energy. This drop in prices is only a brief moment in this crazy economy. You can bet that fuel prices will be jumping up toward the end of the year.

Who to blame? Who knows? It could be the OPEC folks in cahoots with the automotive manufacturers messing with the supply to lull us into buying more gas-guzzlers. It could be some kind of manipulation by the big oil companies to play games with us while they post RECORD PROFITS! But it really doesn't matter.

It's time for ALL OF US to explore our own methods of tapping into alternate energy sources--whether it's homemade do-it-yourself solar collectors for heating water or air, or assembling your own solar photovoltaic panels and then installing them on your roof. Or, hybrid-electric-vehicles (HEV) or plug-in-hybrid-electric-vehicle (PHEV), or Natural-Gas-Vehicles (NGV), or hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicles (HFCV).

Of course, not only should we be switching to other sources of energy, we should also be conserving and cutting back on how we currently use energy. By properly insulating our homes, by switching the incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs or better yet, Light-Emitting-Diodes (LED), by not taking long hot-water-showers, by not leaving unnecessary lights and electrical appliances on when they're not being used.

Some of this will require minor adjustments to our daily habits. And some of this will take more than that--it may require a major investment into the methods of using the alternate energy sources.

But every step toward alternate energy (anything other than fossil fuel) will be a good move that will pay off quicker than most would assume.

I'm curious. With the folks from all over the world reading this blog and some of my rants here, what are you doing and what are your countries doing to use alternate energy and to conserve energy?

Do-It Yourself versus Buy What's Available

When I was studying alternate energy in school many, many years ago (1974-1980, if you must know), it was not easy finding good alternate energy products. And, in our classes at the University of Guam and the University of Hawaii Manoa Campus Guam Extension, we wound up making our alternate energy items--including a solar water heater, a solar oven, and a solar cooker.

As students, we each acquired the plywood, copper pipes, solder, butane torch, nails, flat-black spray paint, glass/glazing, glass-cutter, duct-tape, and other tools necessary to build these things. It required some heavy lifting, some hot soldering, teamwork with holding the copper pipes while they were being soldered and for heavy lifting of the assembled units.

I was taking the classes as a public school science teacher (taking additional classes to satisfy my teaching certification requirements)--so the units I made wound up being part of the science curriculum at the high school I was teaching at-- and those things may still be in the science department storeroom.

But the solar energy principles and the learning experience of hands-on work with building the units have stayed with me ever since.

Now? Maybe instead of building my own solar water heater and solar cooker and solar oven (although I probably could easily do this, if I had the inclination), it might be better to buy those that are now available commercially.

My experience with building the things is helpful now when evaluating the quality and performance of the commercially-built units.

Why buy a commercial unit? Even though it may seem costly, you may get a higher-quality product. If you are not a metal-worker or experienced carpenter or construction worker or engineer, you might not get a good unit even after all the time you've put into assembling an alternate energy unit. If you buy a commercial unit, chances are good that the assembly is well-put-together and it will have a warranty on it.

You can always meet the solution half-way -- you can buy a solar or alternate energy KIT -- which provides you with a box or shipping crate of the proper components, and all you have to do is assemble it on your intended location. This ensures that the basic components are good and functional and saves you on the installation costs.

There are many different ways of looking at alternate energy resources for your home or business--I hope these help with your decision to act on avoiding the oil monster.


Power your home with solar or wind power, visit the Alternative Energy Store!


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Thin-film Photovoltaic (TFPV) -- Printing Your Solar Panel?

By 2015 (6 years from now), amorphous silicon photovoltaic technology will use more than $900 million in silane gas and other silicon-based materials (sand will be a good thing to have a lot of).

It used to be that the crystalline silicon photovoltaic materials were the hot technology (as seen in the solar panels developed for space flight and the early PV panels used on home and business installations) for electricity generation.

But now, the thin-film PV materials are strong light absorbers and only need to be about 1 micrometer thick..... so the material costs are significantly reduced. The most common materials for thin-film PV are amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride (CdTe), and copper indium (gallium) diselenide (CIS or CIGS).

Each of these three is suitable for large-area deposition (on substrates of about 1-meter wide) and thus are suitable for high-volume manufacturing. The thin-film semiconductor layers are deposited onto either coated glass or stainless steel sheets.

Research organizations and manufacturers are now exploring how to apply this chemistry to photovoltaic-capable inks--that when applied and dry, will generate a current when exposed to light and other inks that will conduct a current. This enables the high-volume printing of circuits and electricity generating components.

It's technological advances such as the one described above that will raise the bar on solar and alternate energy electricity generating processes!


Want Solar Options? Check Out the Variety Here!


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Get Youngsters Involved - Education Works!

Why don't more schools have programs in either their geography or science classes that teach about alternate energy?

Different energy sources are used in different parts of the world. Some countries, particularly those near the equator, can readily make good use of highly available solar energy. Other countries may have to use a combination of solar, geothermal, hydro, and other energy sources to provide the power needed to keep a home warm or cool and to provide the electricity to power things such as lights, computers, radios, and so on.

By learning about the limitations of various kinds of environmental power sources, our kids can be better informed about their own choices in energy usage and conservation.

Not only should they learn about how to read an electric meter, but they should also learn about electricity--what it is and how it works in making things like radios, TVs, computers, stoves, ovens, and otehr modern conveniences possible.

A course that covered solar water heating, solar cooking, solar electricity generation could be easily incorporated into a basic science class, or physics class, or even a geography class, although the science class would make the most sense.

I've covered some more of these thoughts in my Squidoo lens on Energy Independence. Drop on by and visit. And pass this on to your friends who also may be getting frustrated with the price of gas and the chunk it takes out of their income each month!

You Want Wind Power Options? Check Out The Variety Here!


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Resources out there for those who want to ACT!

While in college, I took classes in alternate energy--most involved solar energy. Let's face it, the most powerful energy provider for our planet is the SUN. And it seems that many among us want to ignore this point.

Global warming? Duh. The SUN is the most obvious culprit in this phenomenon. I live in a semi-arid area of the U.S. -- and it gets over 100 degrees F frequently in the summer. And I don't thing Joe Schmoe down the street with his big SUV did anything to cause this heat.

Since we're finding archeological remains of human habitation as the glaciers melt away, this sort of implies that there had been warmer days before "global cooling" (aka "ice age") happened. And humans were there for that. Humans evidently "adapted" to the new climate, and it seems that other animals, such as the wooley mammoth and the saber-tooth tiger weren't as quick at adapting to the new climate. Because we humans are still here and those critters aren't.

So, in my view, we're not experiencing "global warming"--well, yeah, we are. But it's probably more correctly referred to as "coming out of an ice-age". And when this "global warming" has run its cycle, we'll have to prepare for "global cooling" again. And, what are we going to blame this phenomenon on? Refrigerator salesmen? Yup. We humans may have to take the rap again.

Ah well... enough rambling.

While you are at it, check out the following resource on Solar Heat!


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So... another blog about alternate energy?

Yup. Another blog about alternate energy. Hey, maybe with more of us squawking about the problem with fossil fuels (oil and coal), we might get some action from our leaders (funny how that might work!).

Remember--the *first* oil crisis in 1973-1974?... when folks lined up at gas stations to get their cars filled up based on whether they had an odd-numbered or even-numbered license plate? We were hearing that the world would run out of oil by the year 2000. (Uh, it didn't, but maybe we should have thought more about alternate energy at that time anyway!) But back in 1974, the year 2000 was more than 25 years away. Now, however, the year 2000 is in the past.

So, we have seen advances in technology for solar photovoltaic panels, advances in energy-saving devices, better battery types, and so on that we can use to beat this new "oil crisis".

You Want Solar Options? Check Out the Variety Here!



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